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History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

This series of 20 programmes is based on a unique project, overseen by UNESCO known as the GHA: the General History of Africa - Africa's history, culture and heritage written and told by Africans themselves. Zeinab Badawi travels across more than thirty countries in west, east, central and southern Africa and explores the continent's history from the beginning of time to the modern era with the goal to 'set history straight'. She captures key moments in Africa's history in her conversations with Africans from all walks of life including leading historians from across Africa and she brings alive some of the lesser known heroes and heroines of the continent's past. This is a search for truth and identity - uncovering hidden chapters and perspectives of Africa's history and revising distorted interpretations.

Episode 01 - Mother Africa
Zeinab Badawi travels across the continent examining the origins of humankind; how and why we evolved in Africa - Africa is the greatest exporter of all time: every human being originated in Africa.

Episode 02 - Cattle, Crops and Iron
Zeinab Badawi continues her journey through the history of human development travelling to meet the Maasai of east Africa - one of the best known of the continent's ethnic groups.

Episode 03 - Gift of the Nile
Zeinab Badawi's quest to uncover the history of Africa takes her to Egypt where she explores the most famous civilisation on the continent that of the ancient Egyptians.

Episode 04 - Kingdom of Kush
Zeinab Badawi travels to the country of her birth and the very region of her forefathers and mothers: northern Sudan where she sheds light on this little-known aspect of ancient African history, the great Kingdom of Kush.

Episode 05 - The Rise of Aksum
Zeinab Badawi travels to the rarely visited country of Eritrea and neighbouring Ethiopia to chart the rise of the kingdom of Aksum.

Episode 06 - Kings and Emirs
Zeinab Badawi focuses on the fall of the kingdom of Aksum and how the Christian kings who followed in the wake of its demise left powerful legacies especially that of King Lalibela who ruled in the 12/13th century.

Episode 07 - North Africa
Zeinab Badawi's exploration of Africans' rich history focuses on North Africa.

Episode 08 - Ancestors, Spirits and God
Zeinab Badawi examines religion in Africa. First the enduring presence of Africa's indigenous religions, to which millions of people on the continent still adhere.

Episode 09 - Islam in Africa
Zeinab Badawi travels to several countries and looks at the early spread of Islam in Africa and how many Africans practise to this day a mystic, Sufi form of the religion.

Episode 10 - Desert Empires
Zeinab Badawi visits rarely seen historic sites and magnificent ruins in Mali and Mauritania in west Africa.

Episode 11 - City States and Civilisations
We see how city states and kingdoms gave rise to rich and diverse civilisations, including some of the most iconic works of art on the continent: the Benin bronzes, dating back to the 13th century.

Episode 12 - Coast and Conquest
Zeinab Badawi starts with a visit to some of the most sensational historic sites in Africa: the Swahili coastal settlements of Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique on Africa's Indian Ocean coast.

Episode 13 - Southern Kingdoms
Zeinab Badawi travels to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia to find out about the powerful kingdoms of southern Africa and their rulers from 10th to 19th century, like the Mutapa kingdom that stretched across portions of eight modern-day southern African countries.

Episode 14 - The Golden Stool
Zeinab Badawi travels to Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire to find out about the Asante people and their kingdom. We examine the history, myths and legends of the Asante people.

Episode 15 - No Longer at Ease
Zeinab Badawi provides an overview of how Africans lived before the arrival of Europeans.

Episode 16 - Slavery and Suffering
Much is known about enslaved Africans once they arrived in the Americas and Europe, but in this episode Zeinab Badawi looks at the impact on Africa itself of one of the most evil chapters in human history: the trans Atlantic slave trade.

Episode 17 - Slavery and Salvation
Zeinab Badawi visits Ghana and sees how momentum in the trans Atlantic slave trade led to competition for enslaved Africans between European nations who built numerous slave forts along West Africa's Atlantic coast.

Episode 18 - Diamonds, Gold and Greed
Zeinab Badawi travels to South Africa and Zimbabwe and sees how southern Africans gradually came to grasp the destruction and suffering that would be inflicted upon them by white settlers.

Episode 19 - Kongo and the Scramble for Africa
Zeinab Badawi travels to Angola, DRC and Congo in central Africa to bring the history of the great Kongo Empire.

Episode 20 - Resistance and Liberation
Zeinab Badawi makes a huge and broad sweep across Africa examining the struggle for freedom, even in the face of bloody crackdowns: a veteran Mau Mau fighter in Kenya, ...